Who records minutes for Government board

[Guest Droyson]

For a county government board meeting, is a board member required to take the minutes or can this be done by staff?

[Joshua Katz]

RONR requires that someone be responsible for taking minutes. Your practice is more likely found in your own rules. It seems to me that, even if staff takes minutes, a board member, preferably a secretary, should be responsible for those minutes and the fact that they were approved by signing and initialing, respectively.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 1/25/2024 at 11:30 AM, Guest Droyson said:

For a county government board meeting, is a board member required to take the minutes or can this be done by staff?

Typically minutes are recorded by an official with the title Secretary or Clerk.  In government bodies this person is an employee, typically not a board member, except that the rules may provide that this person is an ex-officio member of the board, with the right (and arguably the duty) to attend meetings, but typically no right to vote, unless they are elected by the public.

This situation does not conflict with RONR, but it is different from what usually occurs with private societies.